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January/February 2004 Eight Dollars www.commarts.com

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Rosanne Olson

Left: "One of a long-term series of photographs I have been doing of children growing up . I have been photographing this girl, Jamie Rothenberg, since she was three-years-old. She is now nineteen .

This image was taken of her at age seven. " "This is a photograph I did for a health -care cooperative's magazine.

Their art director, Douglas Deay, was a joy to work with . He gave me an assignment to illustrate Alzheimer's disease. I worked with my 85-year-old neighbor to attain a feeling of loss and confusion using 4 X 5 Type 55 Polaroid film on which I then manipulated the emulsion while it was still wet." Douglas Deay, art director; View Magazine/Group Health, client.

"I have been working on a series of black-and-white pinhole photographs around the world for seven years . This image, a self-portrait, was taken at The Lido near Venice . I had gone there expecting to see beautiful beaches, but it was November and everything was fenced-in or closed. This walkway to one of the beaches was lined by white plastic fencing. The deserted beach beyond consisted of piles of trash from the summer's visitors. " This page: "One of several images we shot for the Puerto Rico Department of Tourism campaign that involved taking models into beautiful, remote areas of Puerto Rico . This is a photograph of two sisters in the El Yunque rain forest . True to its name, it rained for hours after we got to the location while the models huddled in the RV a half mile down the narrow, winding road . We had a small window of good light before the sun blasted through." Nadia Muratti, art director; Robert Garni, creative director; UH, ad agency; Puerto Rico Department of Tourism, client.

"Another photograph shot for the New York City Ballet's 2001-2002 advertising campaign . Initially the campaign was to have been in black-and-white, but in the end the Ballet decided they wanted color.

I got to select the dancers, the costumes and the locations for the shots, then sketched out my ideas to propose to the Ballet what we would do. This is Sebastien Marcovici photographed at Mill Lane in New York City. The images were used as bus ads, print ads, brochures and mailers . It was a wonderful project." Flo Luckey, Oberlander Design, art director; Oberlander Design, design firm; New York City Ballet, client.

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Dan Craig at a fini shed product [that in corporates Photoshop] and don't see a difference between it and the work that came before computers ."

One of his latest projects is the cover and interior illustrations for the chi ldren's book The Light of Christmas,

by Richard Paul Evans (author of the imm ensely popular

The Christmas Box). The all -d igital illustrations mark the first time Craig has illustrated a children's book, and he is eager to repeat the experience. ''I'd like to write my own children's book someday and illustrate it. T hat wo uld be the perfect project. " Craig is optimistic that illustration wi ll regain its former popularity and that ad firms looking for quality wi ll begin turning back to illustration. "I think it's a cyclic thing, " he says. "I think it wi ll be back. I imagine there's going to have to be a comi ng together of the two sides .

"If yo u look at what's being don e even in these difficult times, the work is amazing. T here are

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sitting in illustration's hospital room saying, 'Co me on, baby! Open your eyes ."' •

This page: Cover of A Mischief in the Snow by Margaret Miles .

"Over the years, I've been taught that mystery covers must convey a mood. Here, a sense of isolation, journey and an ultimate arrival." Jamie Warren-Youll, art director; Bantam Books, client. 10 X 13. " This poster promoted a fair produced in Minneapolis each year by the United Way. After playing with many images in my sketchbook I came up with this one which was subsequently chosen for the poster. Rene Magritte has always been a favorite of mine and his work inspired the idea. I was fortunate enough to win a Clio for it." George Halvorson, art director; Campbell Mithun Esty, ad agency. 25 X 26.

Right: " This cover for a story on the influx of new types of pears called for a simple rendering of Asian pears and I jumped at the opportunity. Nothing satisfies a hankering to render more than spherical objects casting shadows. Seventeenth-century Dutch still-lifes always blow me away. I love their sense of light and shadow and the tightly-rendered detail. Bearing them in mind , I made the background dark and painted every spot on every pear." Sue McClellan, art director; Harrowsmith Country Life magazine, client. 12 X 16.

Cover for Tathea by Anne Perry, a book that examines the battle between good and evil through its title character. "Though a fantasy, this book has religious overtones so I went for a quasibiblical look." Judith Murello, art director; Berkley Publishing, client. 9 X 17 . " Wanting a reason to paint with oil on Masonite panel, I made this painting . The owl to me is a bird brimming with symbolic expression. The trick then was to make an image that did not state anything too overtly. Images with hidden meanings are ultimately the most intriguing." 15 X 11 .

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PIONEERS

Robert Miles Runyan e was successful and he thoroughly enjoyed that success-

H

to the hilt. Fast cars . Expensive clothes. Unique houses.

He was a collector, with a capitol C, of arr and objects which he displayed in extraordinary arrangements and exquisite taste.

Gifted with an almost terrifying fund of energy, Robert Miles Runyan engaged in design and living with an intensity that few could march." Dick Coyne wrote these comments in a 1987 article in Communication Arts.

In 1959, Robert Runyan designed a ground-breaking annual report for Litton Industries, lnc.-a departure from the usual staid and stuffy representative of the corporate world-and it has influenced the content and design of most annual reports since. Ir had a tremendous impact on the financial community and very accurately communicated the objectives and future of the client.

Litton was less than six-years-old with sales of $125 million, but the report strove for a feeling of success, solidity and utilized the theme of technology, o ld and new. The props for rhe theme were col lected by Runyan from museums, antique stores and private collections . The modern equipment, product and facility photos were mounted prints and arranged with the other props and shot as a single photo. The final result was a truly outstanding design solution .

Bob was born in Nebraska, did a wartime hitch in the Marines, studied at Chouinard and the Arr Center on rhe G.I. Bill and opened his own studio in the mid 1950s.

An astute judge of design talent, Runyan surrounded himself with first-class expertise. His ream of highly capable designers included many of whom went on to create their own design offices. Unlike most successful designers, Runyan spent little rime on the "board." He felt his rime was of the most value to the organization in analyzing and arr directing and his designing was confined to thinking, verbal expression and occasional scribbles. He was also a supersalesman of his firm's capabilities.

Designer Jim Berte, summed up his experience, "T he Runyan office at rimes could be a frustrating mad house and at other rimes a complete joy. His greatest virtue was his ability to find talented designers and then leave them alone." "He always seemed like a larger-than-life figure to me," said designer Doug Joseph. "Ir's not that he was physically big; it was his presence in a room. I owe a tremendous amount to Bob and the experience I acquired working for him. " Designer Rik Besser added, "Ir was a great opportunity for me to work with Bob. Ir was my first job our of school and it was a hell of an eye opener. The experience shaped my career. He had a presence, a bravado that 96

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Left: Photograph of Robert Miles Runyan, 1971 . All projects were art directed by Runyan.

Nineteen sixty-six self-promotion poster for Robert Miles Runyan & Associates. Maurice Yanez, designer.

This page: International Printing Week poster, 1961. Paul Hauge, designer.

Annual report for Litton Industries, Inc., 1959. It set the standard for the field during the high -rolling '60s-the decade of elegance and splash in corporate communications.

Robert Miles Runyan, designer; Ovid Neal, photographer.

S.S. Independence , cruise ship of American Export lsbrandtsen Lines. The program covered exterior and interior design, including all staterooms, bars, lounges and restau rants, swimming pool, furniture accessories and graphic materials. Peter Harrison, project

PRINTING TELLS IT BEST I NTE R NATIO NA L PRI N TI N G W EE K/ J ANU ARY 15 -21

coordinator; James House, interior coordi nator; Bill Tobias, graphic coordinator; Bill Chefalas, construction supervisor; Maurice Yanez, graphic design .

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Joseph Hart

Location: Brooklyn, New York.

Duration: Since 1999 .

Staff: Self.

Education: Life, Rhode Island School of Design .

Cultural Influences: New Hampsh ire, NYC, friends & family, folk art, craft, patterns, ornamentation and decoration, wood working, organica, music, books, homemade mythology, underdogs, uncommon loveliness, popular culture, and the contradictions and juxtapositions these create w hen combined . I am humbled by and admi re Henry Darger's dense and baroque universe , Ben Shahn's sensibi lity and Chris Johanson 's precise naivete.

Environment: A sha red wo rk space, heaving with clippings, drawings, books, found objects. blood, sweat and tears. and me, in the corner, listening to Led Zeppelin.

Philosophy: Believe in what you are doing/making, and the rest should fal l into place. Make the mundane interesting . Read Air Guitar by Dave Hickey. Get drunk and hate yo urse lf at least once a month .

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